New media

Chris Browne and Tim Andrews are the co-founders of the new Australian blog Menzies House, which went live on Saturday.

The success of grassroots political blogs like ConserativeHome has significantly changed the dynamics of political campaigns and policy development around the world. By providing a strong platform for political activists to engage in the political process, they have succeeded in not only shaping political debate, but also by driving an agenda of change in influencing policy makers.

Amid a plethora of left wing websites (a number of which are taxpayer funded), Australia has not had an internet ‘home’ for the political centre-right, largely because there was a belief that 'our people have jobs and don't have time to be an online activist'. It was perceived there was no ‘demand’ for online activism.

Last year the presumption that the centre-right are not prepared to be activists was proved resoundingly false. When the then-leader of the (conservative) Liberal Party of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, became determined to support a job-destroying green tax known as the “Emissions Trading Scheme”, a grassroots party rebellion occurred. In the course of just a week, tens of thousands of grassroots party members and supporters mobilised to oppose their ‘leader’ – something previously unheard of in Australian politics. With the support of a few principled politicians, an unprecedented campaign of local activism began, leading to the eventual removal of Malcolm Turnbull as leader and his replacement with the anti-ETS Tony Abbott.

It became clear that there was a large group of centre-right people who were interested enough in politics and policy to make a difference. They just needed an organised outlet.

A small group of activists approached Senator Cory Bernardi, one of the leaders in the grassroots anti-ETS mobilisation and one of the few blogging politicians in Australia, with an idea to develop just such a site – a forum for mainstream centre-right thinkers and activists. Senator Bernardi supplied some initial funding and menzieshouse.com.au was born.

Run entirely by grassroots volunteers, under the the control of an independent Editorial Board, MenziesHouse.com.au has the opportunity to make a real difference in Australian politics.

Its name reflects the intention of Liberal Party founder Sir Robert Menzies' ideals of having a united 'broad church' to oppose Labor and the tyranny of collectivism in all its forms. Indeed, Menzies House shall not be simply a mouthpiece for one particular ideological viewpoint of what the ‘right’ is. Rather, contributors include conservatives, libertarians, classical liberals, and political moderates, all united in their general belief in small government, individual freedoms, and the free market. It seeks to provide news and analysis, commentary and debate. Most importantly, it seeks to provide a unified place for the broad right coalition to gather online.

By engaging directly with the millions of Australians who identify as centre-right, but until now had no outlet to engage in the political process, we believe that Menzies House will make a big difference.

Downunder, MenziesHouse.com.au has been launched. It aims to provide a one-stop site for Australian conservative, centre right and libertarian thinkers. Like ConservativeHome its focus is on the Liberal Party and with an article from Julie Bishop, Deputy to Tony Abbott, it appears to have the blessing of the party. But, again like ConHome, with articles like this - urging abolition of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - it is willing to go further than the party leadership.

Australian PM Kevin Rudd must be a strong favourite to be re-elected later this year but Tony Abbott - installed as leader after Liberal MPs rejected Malcolm Turnbull's climate change policy - has modestly improved the Liberals' poll position:

"The two-party preferred vote has gone from a 57-43 split in the dying days of Turnbull's leadership to a 54-46 split. Abbott scored a higher rating as preferred prime minister (25 points) than either Brendan Nelson (14) or Turnbull (24) on their poll debuts as opposition leader. He has also reversed the fatal trend where more of Turnbull's satisfaction rating came from the approval of Labor voters (42 per cent) than Coalition supporters (32 per cent). Abbott's satisfaction rating is based on 61 per cent support from Coalition supporters and 32 per cent among Labor voters. Certainly, successful party leaders need support from outside their natural constituency to win, but the notional support of people who are never going to vote for you is neither here nor there."

It's a phenomenon that leading Democrats are encouraging. The White House, for example, is promoting the idea that popular talk radio host, Rush Limbaugh, is the real leader of the Republicans. They calculate that any association of his strong views will alienate moderate voters from the GOP.

Laura Ingraham, another top conservative radio star, is promoting a 'Ten for '10' list of policy objectives for candidates standing in next year's elections. She'll endorse candidates who sign up. A number already have, including Senator Jim DeMint and Steve Forbes. Fox News star Sean Hannity also has a list of ten issues. They include "keeping Gitmo open" and "expand[ing] coal mining".

The hottest right-wing star at the moment is another Fox News star, Glenn Beck. He is currently touring the country to sell-out crowds promoting his latest book, Arguing With Idiots. Beck famously told Fox viewers that Barack Obama hated white people:

As the internet develops we will see more blurring of the lines between media entities and political parties. The monopoly on comment is already broken. The conventional parties' monopolies of political fundraising and of running slates of candidates will be broken too as the barriers to entry get lower and lower. Moderate Republicans fear that the 'Coulterisation' of their party will accelerate with loud and hardline voices damaging their party's prospects.

As the Left rebuilds on the internet in Britain - following a likely defeat next year - Labour may be pulled from the centre by its own populist voices.

I am currently in Washington DC for the fourth annual gathering of organisations and thinkers from the English-speaking world - all broadly of the centre right - that are interested in developing new solutions to the problems of poverty. The gathering was launched by Iain Duncan Smith in 2005.

This year, about thirty people from a dozen organisations and five countries are here. Britain's Centre for Social Justice, America's Heritage Foundation,
President George W Bush's new Institute (which has already raised more than $200m), Canada's Institute for Marriage and Family, New Zealand's Maxim
Institute and Australia's Kevin Andrews MP are some of the key contributors. A new website has been launched by the Heritage Foundation's Jennifer Marshall - RestoringSocialJustice.com - to track what we are all doing. It's early days for the website but over time we hope it will grow into a useful resource for all conservative people interested in tackling social problems that have defeated the Left. It will record policy thinking, profile key thinkers and case study effective programmes.

Readers of the ToryDiary will know that I am seized with the enormous potential of compassionate conservatism and during this conference my excitement reached new heights. Deeper and deeper friendships are being formed by people who have given their lives to philanthropy, school reform, family policy, tackling crime and understanding welfare systems. An international movement is being built and the RSJ website will be its online home.

Rand Paul, son of libertarian Ron Paul, is the poster boy for this insurgent movement as he seeks to win the Republican nomination to be US Senate candidate for Kentucky.

This Wall Street Journal video overviews the Republican establishment's concerns that this will cause division in the party and that the conservative candidates favoured by grassroots Republicans will be easier for Democrats to beat than more moderate candidates.

In the video below Rand Paul explains why he opposes government bailout of car manufacturers: